Shi Ming did not answer. He simply stared fixedly at him.
Seeing that he still refused to admit defeat, Li Tiezhu felt his own temper flare.
Fine. Then I'll crush every last hope you have.
He suddenly pulled back his staff, and all its afterimages vanished in an instant.
The sea suddenly fell quiet.
Li Tiezhu drew a deep breath, gripped the staff with both hands, and slowly raised it above his head.
The black staff began to glow, growing thicker and longer.
Ten feet.
A hundred feet.
A thousand feet.
Ten thousand feet.
Finally, an utterly black phantom a hundred thousand feet long stretched across the sky above the Demon-Subduing Sea.
It blotted out the sky and sun.
"Pinnacle."
Li Tiezhu softly uttered the word.
Then he brought his staff down.
The watching cultivators felt a crushing pressure that sent a chill seeping out from the cracks in their bones.
Shi Ming looked up at the enormous staff, which seemed poised to crush heaven and earth, and his pupils contracted slightly.
He raised his sword and met it head-on.
BOOOOM!!!
The next instant, Shi Ming hurtled backward across the sea like a meteor.
An enormous crater was smashed into the sea's surface, throwing spray a thousand feet high.
When the spray subsided, everyone saw...
Shi Ming was down on one knee on the water, his white robes torn, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. His sword was planted in the water beside him, swaying unsteadily.
Yet he still held his head high, staring coldly at Li Tiezhu.
Silence fell over the crowd.
Then cries of astonishment erupted like roaring mountains and crashing seas.
"Shi Ming lost?!"
"Number one on the Azure Profound Ranking really is number one..."
Li Tiezhu stood with his staff withdrawn, watching the young